I want to plant start a hop garden in the spring, but I am not sure which varieties I want in my beer. What I would like to do is brew a few different IPA's with different hops and see what I like best. My original idea was to make 5 SMASH IPA's, using a different hop in each one and evaluate from there. But I don't get many brew days, and 5 batches would be ready at different times and I wouldn't really be able to taste them side by side. Plan 2 was to do 1 mash and 5 1 gallon SMASHes from the single mash. Also very time consuming and would be a not very SWMBO friendly endeavor. On to plan 3, which is to brew a 5 gallon batch that is lightly bittered with a neutral hop, then after fermentation separate into the 5 1 gallon batches for dry hopping on 5 different hops.
I will probably order my hop crowns from Great Lakes, so I will see what they have available to select my experiment varieties based on that, leaning toward the C hops for selection. My questions are recommendations for the neutral bittering hops in the single boil and a basic recipe/tips for this experiment.
I will probably order my hop crowns from Great Lakes, so I will see what they have available to select my experiment varieties based on that, leaning toward the C hops for selection. My questions are recommendations for the neutral bittering hops in the single boil and a basic recipe/tips for this experiment.